Page 72 - History of Christianity II- Textbook

Sudanese civil war waged by the militant Islamist government on the predominantly Christian
population of the south.

During the first three centuries after Christ, Africa was a major center of Christian thought and activity.
Origen was from Alexandria in Egypt, while Tertullian and Augustine were from North Africa. By the end
of the third century, Christians in the eastern Magrib were in the majority. Sadly, Christianity in much of
North Africa virtually disappeared as Islam advanced in the following centuries. In Egypt and in Ethiopia,
however, it had taken deep root, and was thus able to survive the Islamic juggernaut and continues to
this day.

While the Portuguese introduced a Catholic form of Christianity to the Kongo Kingdom (central Africa)
between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, there were few, if any, lasting results. Only at the end
of the eighteenth century did the Evangelical Revival begin to bring to Africa an influx of missionaries
whose labors would produce the first fruits of an enduring Christian presence in Sub-Sahara Africa.
With Western civilization came not only the good intentions of Christianity, however, but also the
appallingly devastating transatlantic slave trade and the inevitable excesses of commercial greed
manifest in the white foreigners’ insatiable appetite for Africa’s natural resources. Before authentic
Christianity could sink its roots deep into African soil, these evils had to be fought.

Two great British champions from the nineteenth century were Thomas Fowell Buxton
and Henry Venn, neither of whom ever set foot on African soil. While Buxton sought to
fully eradicate the slave trade by encouraging local commercial and agricultural
initiatives in its place, Venn is responsible for laying down the principles of the
“indigenous church” whereby the nascent African church began to come of age.

For the next two hundred years, African Christians had to struggle against racism and
Western spiritual imperialism. But, as Venn had written, if the African church were to
mature and establish itself, missionaries had to move on once the seed was sown,
leaving indigenous leaders to build the church.

The seeds of the Sub-Saharan church had been planted by Western missionaries.
Now, as the Gospel spread throughout the nooks and crannies of the continent,
African Christianity began to define itself on its own cultural terms. Reformers
within the missionary churches as well as independent church leaders called for
change in the institutionalized church. This led to both reform, on the one hand,
and to the birth of thousands of "African Initiated Churches" (AICs) on the other.
(https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/2001-now/the-
explosion-of-christianity-in-africa-11630859.html)

Second Vatican Council, 1962-5 –
When Pope John XXIII announced the creation of the
Second Vatican Council (also known as Vatican II) in
January 1959, it shocked the world. There hadn't been an
ecumenical council — an assembly of Roman Catholic
religious leaders meant to settle doctrinal issues — in
nearly 100 years.

"Many people maintained that with the definition of papal
infallibility in 1870, councils were no longer needed. So it

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